Traveling Yogi Finding Diamond in the Rough

Relaxing Into “Island Time”

….why would you want to live a life that was less than devotional art? For your own sake, for the sake of all beings, for God’s sake, wouldn’t you rather relax open as love’s offering than contract in stress and subjective confusion? Even if you were cooking dinner for yourself, alone in your house, why move as less than love’s open dance while offering your heart’s yearning brighter than the sun shines?

— David Deida “Dear Lover”

I woke up yesterday and met some friends at the street market in Thong Sala for lunch where I had a green curry from one of the organic food slips and an iced latte from Doppio Café down the street. Then we went to Limpipong, a specialty market down the road that sells everything from pots, pans and coffee makers to teas, chocolates and grains. I picked up some essentials and then we headed to the Sea Garden II Resort where my friend Jaya and her husband are staying.

We made some Butterfly Pea tea (clitoria ternatea), ‘Anchan’ in Thai, a wild herbal flower tea that tastes light and refreshing, and is the most beautiful blue. In traditional Ayurvedic medicine it has been used for ions as a memory enhancer, nootropic, anti-stress, anxiolytic, antidepressant, anticonvulsant, tranquilizing and sedative agent; and in Chinese medicine it is used to treat sexual ailments and is also considered an aphrodisiac.

Butterfly Pea Flower

Butterfly Pea Flower Tea

Butterfly Pea Flower Tea

Then Jaya and I relaxed by the resort’s infinity pool overlooking the ocean in Haad Chao Phao. By then I had been here for two days and I still hadn’t been in the water so it felt wonderful to get in our bathing suits and just play around in the pool without feeling pressured to ‘be’ anywhere in particular.

As the afternoon progressed and we started to get hungry, Jaya and her husband told me they were taking me to a surprise location. We hopped on our scooters and headed down the road to what is truly, one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been, Koh Raham resort and restaurant. If you come to Koh Phangan then Koh Raham is a must see, I felt like I was in a wizard’s beach paradise.

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We sat at a table overlooking the ocean and had cocktails and thai food. The people watching was particularly good with funny tourists snorkling around the waters that surrounded us. We met a young South African couple who sat with us for a while and told us about their journey through Vietnam and Bangkok. The sunset was definitely the highlight of the night.

My formula for greatness in a human being is that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it—all idealism is mendaciousness in the face of what is necessary—but love it.